Agriculture Committee on June 6th, 2016

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Welcome everyone.

The meeting is called to order.

Today we're studying bee health monitoring in Canada.

I want to welcome back Madam Brosseau and Mr. Warkentin. I hope you had a good trip to China with our minister. Also, we have with us Peter Fragiskatos, who is replacing Francis Drouin today.

Our witnesses are here, and with us we have Ms. Andrea Johnston, director general, sector development and analysis directorate, market and industry services branch, Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food. Welcome, Andrea.

We also have with us, by video conference, Stephen F. Pernal, research scientist, apiculture, and officer-in-charge, Beaverlodge research farm, Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food. Welcome, Mr. Pernal.

We also welcome, from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Jaspinder Komal, executive director and deputy chief veterinary officer, animal health directorate, and from the Department of Health, Scott Kirby, director general, environmental assessment directorate, pest management regulatory agency.

We welcome all of you. We will start by giving you an opening statement for up to 10 minutes.

We'll start with Andrea Johnston.

[Andrea Johnston, Director General, Sector Development and Analysis Directorate, Market and Industry Services Branch, Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food]

Thank you very much.

On behalf of the Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, we appreciate this opportunity to discuss the department's ongoing work to help improve the health of honeybees and to provide you information on our diagnostic capacity for testing and measuring bee health in Canada.

Domestic bees are the main source of agricultural pollination around the world. Without them, it would be difficult and even impossible to produce a large number of crops. As a result, bee health is important to beekeepers, to farmers, and to Canada as a whole.

There are many factors that influence bee health.

Parasites and pests, such as varroa mites, impact bee health.

Healthy queens are important to maintaining vigorous productive hives. Queen health can be compromised by factors such as inadequate selection in mating and exposure to pathogens and pesticides.

Long harsh winters or cool extended springs can result in higher levels of overwinter beehive losses.

Management techniques vary among beekeeping operations and can influence honeybee health.

Bees can also be infected by unintentional exposure to agricultural pesticides used to protect crops and by pesticides used in hives to protect bees from parasitic mites and other pests.

Another factor that can indicate challenges to bee health is the magnitude of annual overwinter colony losses. Overwinter losses vary widely from year to year, place to place, and beekeeper to beekeeper.

In 2015 the national average percentage of colony winter loss was 16.4%. Overall, the reported national colony loss this year is one of the lowest since 2006-07.

A further indicator of bee health is honeybee population levels and productivity. The most recent numbers available show that Canada's 8,533 beekeepers produced about 95 million pounds of honey in 2015, and that's up by around 11% from 2014. Over the same period, the number of colonies increased by 3.6%.

Improvements to bee health require action from a wide range of stakeholders. AAFC established the bee health round table on March 25, 2014, to bring together a diverse group of stakeholders, including beekeepers, grains and horticulture crop producers, researchers, input suppliers, and provincial and federal officials. The bee health round table provides a means to allow for a national cross-sectoral dialogue to identify specific actions related to bee health.

Maintaining and improving bee health is a multidimensional, long-term issue. It requires a great deal of time and resources, and efforts must be coordinated.

The bee health round table members identified four pillars: a pollinator strategy with a vision for the future of beekeeping in Canada as a valued part of agriculture; a research strategy that identifies and addresses gaps and priorities for the beekeeping industry; products and solutions for beekeepers and other agricultural producers that are both effective and sustainable; and knowledge transfer between all stakeholders, including producers, beekeepers, regulators, researchers, and the broader public, to ensure timely awareness.

Within AAFC, scientists are supporting a variety of issues related to bee health across the country. In July 2015, AAFC and the U.S. Department of Agriculture began formal research collaboration to assess stressors causing bee population declines in North America and develop the necessary tools to detect widespread pests, pathogens, and parasites.

In addition, in July 2014, AAFC announced funding for a million-dollar four-year nationwide surveillance project to document the health profile of honeybee colonies in Canada. AAFC looks forward to continuing to work with stakeholders to ensure a sustainable future for beekeeping in agriculture.

Dr. Pernal will now provide further details on the work undertaken by AAFC as he explains the research under way and our diagnostic capacity to assess bee health.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Andrea.

Go ahead, Dr. Pernal.

[Dr. Stephen Pernal, Research Scientist, Apiculture, and Officer-in-Charge, Beaverlodge Research Farm, Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food]

Good afternoon. I am Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's lead scientist specializing in honeybee research. I'm here today to represent the science and technology branch.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada appreciates the opportunity to provide you with information on the important ongoing work we are doing to help improve the health of honeybees in Canada and to provide an update on our current diagnostic capacity for testing and measuring bee health.

AAFC has its national honeybee research program located in Beaverlodge, Alberta, which is led by me and employs two permanent technicians. A recent addition to our staff has been a new term scientist, Dr. Marta Guarna, who will be employed until March 31, 2017. Currently, three graduate students and one post-doctoral fellow are working on projects associated with our lab. During the summer of 2016, we're employing four co-operative education post-secondary students as well as two casual beekeeping technicians. AAFC also has a scientist working on native bees located in Ottawa, and native bee biologists in Kentville, Nova Scotia, and Calgary, Alberta.

AAFC is working on several ongoing bee-related projects. For example, we're developing recommendations for detecting and treating colonies infected with Nosema ceranae, a newly introduced parasite associated with higher rates of colony losses. In addition, we're developing techniques to disinfect beekeeping equipment exposed to this pest, and methods to detect therapeutic compounds that may be deposited in hive products.

We are also continuing to analyze samples for agricultural pesticide residues in honey, pollen, and beeswax throughout Alberta. Moreover, we're examining concentrations of products currently registered for control of diseases or mites of honeybees that may also accumulate in these matrices.

Analytical chemistry support for these activities has been provided through a long-standing partnership with the agrifood laboratories branch in Edmonton, part of the Province of Alberta's Department of Agriculture and Forestry.

In the last two years, AAFC has funded several new projects involving bee health. For example, we are currently in the last year of a project that examines the interactive role that certain risk factors, namely, Nosema ceranae parasitism, nutrition, and pesticides, have on honeybee colony survival within honey-producing and pollination beekeeping operations across different regions of the country. A second component of this project also examines diversity of wild pollinators in agricultural ecosystems and factors that may affect their abundance and overall health.

With partners funded through the agri-innovation program, we've also assisted in the evaluation of probiotic bacteria as a novel control against honeybee diseases.

The department also recently approved a new internal project that, beginning this summer, will document the prevalence of newly introduced parasitic threats in Canadian honeybee populations, namely, Lotmaria passim and Crithidia mellificae, as well as their potential impact on bee health.

AAFC has also funded a national four-year honeybee surveillance project through the agri-marketing program's assurance system stream. This project was awarded to the Alberta and Manitoba beekeepers commissions, and is now in its third year. As active surveillance for honeybee threats is not performed by agencies such as the CFIA, this project is designed to provide a baseline of endemic and exotic disease and pest threats to Canadian bee populations.

AAFC's honeybee program has also been successful in garnering significant extramural funding from scientific and industry-led funding consortiums to address other concerns to the beekeeping industry. These include studying factors related to the viability of sperm in newly mated honeybee queens imported into Canada, as well as looking at the role that honeybees and native bees can play to maximize the pollination of canola crops.

In 2015-16 we embarked on a large-scale genomic project with several other research groups across the country to develop genetic markers to breed bees that are more resistant to mites and diseases. This is the largest collaborative project involving honeybees in Canada, and brings together experts from universities and government with many unique and complementary skills.

In terms of diagnostic capacity, AAFC operates a laboratory at the Beaverlodge research farm capable of performing basic diagnostics as well as more advanced microbiological and molecular biology techniques. Recently, our ability to provide diagnostics has substantially increased through a formalized partnership with our local post-secondary institution, Grande Prairie Regional College.

The college, receiving support from Western Economic Diversification Canada and the rural Alberta development fund, built the national bee diagnostic centre, or NBDC, at Beaverlodge farm in 2012. This custom-built diagnostic laboratory has been fully operating since the spring of 2013 and actively partners with our AAFC research program, thereby extending our diagnostic capacity. As an example, the diagnostic testing for the national surveillance project is performed at the NBDC. Existing and future AAFC projects will benefit from the use of diagnostic platforms made available at the NBDC.

AAFC has been working diligently to seek answers concerning bee health in Canada and in creating working partnerships to provide the diagnostic capacity it requires to engage in leading-edge research.

In closing, I would like to thank the committee for providing me this opportunity to speak to you today.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Mr. Pernal.

Now, from the CFIA, we have Mr. Jaspinder Komal.

[Dr. Jaspinder Komal, Executive Director and Deputy Chief Veterinary Officer, Animal Health Directorate, Canadian Food Inspection Agency]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and good afternoon.

My name is Jaspinder Komal and I am the executive director of the animal health directorate at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the deputy chief veterinary officer of Canada.

The CFIA is a science-based regulatory agency dedicated to safeguarding plants, animals, and food. Our work promotes the health and well-being of Canada's people, environment, and economy.

The CFIA recognizes that bee populations are essential to the health and vitality of the Canadian agriculture sector. However, since my colleagues at AAFC are responsible for measuring bee health, my remarks will focus on the CFIA's science-based approach to maintaining bee health.

The nature of commercial beekeeping operations differs across the country. Some beekeepers specialize in honey production. Others specialize in delivering pollination services, and many beekeepers combine both activities.

At the CFIA, we do comprehensive risk assessments of diseases and other factors influencing bee health, and we collaborate with partners to develop and implement options for risk management. While federal and provincial jurisdictions share responsibility for managing bee health in Canada, the CFIA works primarily at the national level. We do this by designating certain bee diseases as regulated and reportable, which means that specific disease control measures must be applied. We also provide guidance to the bee industry through the national bee farm-level biosecurity standard.

The national bee farm-level biosecurity standard was developed by the CFIA in collaboration with producers, industry associations, academia, provincial governments, and AAFC. The standard was published in 2013.

Development of the national standard was supported by Growing Forward funding. The objective of the standard is to facilitate a consistent Canada-wide approach to the implementation of biosecurity practices for both small and large-scale operations. The standard provides comprehensive practical guidance to prevent the introduction and the spread of pests in the three main Canadian bee sectors, namely, honeybees, alfalfa leafcutting bees, and bumblebees.

AAFC has also provided funding to the Canadian Honey Council to bring together best practices into one reference document for industry. The council produced the “Canadian Beekeepers' Practical Handbook to Bee Biosecurity and Food Safety” in 2015. This material has been translated into French and will be supported by outreach to producers.

The provinces work closely with industry to implement bee health management programs provincially. The provinces are also responsible for the interprovincial movement of bees to minimize the spread of bee diseases and pests.

In addition to its involvement in domestic efforts to maintain bee health, the CFIA also works to minimize the risk of introducing bee diseases into Canada.

The CFIA achieves this by monitoring the animal health status of trading partners, and by preventing animals or related products from coming into the country if they pose a risk to the health of Canada's animal resource base.

Bee diseases and pests can spread between countries through the international trade in bees, especially packaged bees.

A package of bees usually weighs one or 1.5 kilograms, or two to three pounds. The two-pound package contains about 8,000 bees, while a three-pound package contains about 12,000. The bees are shipped in a box with four wooden sides and screened material in the front and back.

Packaged bees are used by beekeepers to establish new colonies and replace winter losses. Canada closed the border to U.S.-packaged honeybees in 1987 because of an outbreak of parasitic mites called the varroa mites in that country. CFIA reassessed the situation in 1994, in 2003, and most recently in 2014. Currently, CFIA only allows the importation of U.S. honeybee queens and their attendants, which are worker bees that take care of the queen. This policy has been in place since the 2003 risk assessment.

Mr. Chairman, you may wonder why the importation of honeybee queens is being treated differently from the importation of packaged bees. This difference is that honeybee queens can be inspected for signs of disease before importation into Canada, whereas such verification is not possible with honeybee packages.

To receive stakeholder input, in 2013 CFIA conducted a one-month consultation process on the honeybee importation issue. A total of 174 responses were received from Canadian individuals, national and regional bee associations, provincial representatives, and even U.S. beekeepers. Seventy-two per cent of respondents were against opening the U.S. border to packaged bees. In March 2014, CFIA communicated the decision on U.S. honeybee packages to various stakeholders, including the Canadian Council of Chief Veterinary Officers and the Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists, CAPA.

Diseases and threats are continuously evolving, and in the current context of globalization, Canada must remain vigilant in maintaining our bee health status. While the U.S. border remains closed to honeybee packages, CFIA is open to discussions with stakeholders, and will continue to work with the Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists to find other sources of honeybees.

Currently, Canadian producers are allowed to import honeybees, queens, and packaged bees from Australia, New Zealand, and Chile.

The CFIA remains committed to a strong and healthy honey and beekeeping sector as part of a sustainable and competitive agricultural system. We will continue to support this goal through collaboration with industry and other government partners.

Thank you again for this opportunity to provide the CFIA's perspective on bee health in Canada.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Mr. Komal.

Now from the Department of Health, we have Mr. Kirby. You have 10 minutes.

[Scott Kirby, Director General, Environmental Assessment Directorate, Pest Management Regulatory Agency, Department of Health]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My name is Scott Kirby, director general of the environmental assessment directorate at Health Canada's pest management regulatory agency (PMRA). We are the federal regulator of pesticides and so we are very interested in all potential impacts of agricultural pesticides on health and the environment, including bee health.

As you may be aware, in 2012, a large number of honey bee mortality incidents were reported in Ontario, and following a detailed investigation, we concluded that they were related to the dust generated during the planting of corn and soybean seed treated with neonicotinoid insecticides.

In response to the incidents, PMRA has worked with growers and pesticide manufacturers to implement mandatory mitigation measures since 2014. These measures included the use of dust-reducing seed flow lubricants, the use of best management practices for safer seed planting, and adding enhanced warnings and directions on how to protect bees on the seed package labels.

With these mitigation measures in place, the number of incidents reported during the planting periods of 2014 and 2015 decreased by approximately 70% and 80% respectively from the numbers reported in 2013, which is a significant improvement. Corn and soybean planting in 2016 are essentially complete, and although we are still collecting information, we are cautiously optimistic that the positive trend we've observed in the past two years will continue.

As you are aware, bee health is a complex issue, and more work is required to understand non-pesticide related issues. We are continuing to collaborate with all stakeholders, including the provinces, and we continue to monitor bee incidents.

In addition to our work on bee incidents, we are also conducting a scientific re-evaluation of all uses of the neonicotinoid insecticides. This evaluation uses a new pollinator risk assessment framework, which was developed together with the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the California Department of Pesticide Regulation. This framework represents an advancement in how we assess the risks posed by pesticides to bees and allows improved pollinator protection in our regulatory decisions and risk mitigation measures.

Finally, the PMRA continues to participate in several national and international fora on bee health, including the bee health round table led by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, to address this important issue for Canadian agriculture.

Mr. Chair and committee members, I hope you have found my update informative. I look forward to your questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Mr. Kirby.

We will now proceed to questions.

We'll start with Mr. Bev Shipley.

You have six minutes.

[Bev Shipley, Conservative, Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I thank all of the witnesses for being a part of the discussion today.

I'm from southwestern Ontario. As you know, it has been one of the hot spots in terms of activities that have initiated some of the discussions and court actions regarding the use of neonics, etc.

Mr. Kirby, these numbers that have come out in 2014-15 are not new. The season, as you indicated, has just finished. It will be interesting to see, because actually we went into a very cool, wet spring and one thing that has been consistent is the wind, even when it has been dry over the last while.

The decrease of 70% to 80%—that's not 10% or 15%, but 70% to 80%—happened prior to the ban that Ontario put in place on the availability and use of neonics for planting. Is it all because of the working together in terms of the lubricant that has been used, the machinery manufacturers, and also the awareness of farmers? I have a number of farmers who continue to use neonics with bee producers right beside them, as they always have, and there's not the issue.

I'm wondering if you could make a comment about why there's that 70% to 80%. If it's another good year this year, there might even be an improvement on that. Why are we moving towards banning a product when it takes that working together to find out what the issues are?

[Scott Kirby]

Thank you for your question.

To speak to the issue of the decrease in the number of incidents over the last couple of years, I think you're right. I think it's not a single factor that's attributed to that.

I think it has been unprecedented, the amount of collaboration and co-operation that has been taking place between large numbers of stakeholders in terms of the amount of information that's being shared among growers, beekeepers and the agricultural producers. In general, the mandatory measures that were put in place seem to be having an effect, but also, I think good communication among stakeholders has also played an important part in ensuring that everybody is aware of, for instance, where the bees are and when growers are going to be planting corn.

With respect to the measures that are being put in place by Ontario in terms of the reduced availability of neonicotinoids, I don't really want to comment on another jurisdiction's regulatory approach—

[Bev Shipley, Conservative, Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON]

That's fine, because I'm also going to run out of time.

[Scott Kirby]

—but suffice it to say that it's within their jurisdiction to do this.

[Bev Shipley, Conservative, Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON]

Right, and it is an interesting issue. Obviously, not all the Ontario producers support the action, and out west it is not an issue of acknowledgement that is very high in terms of the numbers lost.

Andrea, in your presentation, you talked about how Canada's 8,533 beekeepers produced 95.3 million pounds of honey in 2015. That's up by 11.4% in one year and is a significant amount. The number of colonies increased by 3.6%. On another page, you talked about bee population declining in North America. How are we different in Canada from the total of North America? On one page, you're saying that we have an increase in the number of bees, the number of colonies, and the amount of production, yet the bee population seems to be declining in North America. Maybe you could clarify that for me.

[Andrea Johnston]

I will clarify in the sense that in Canada—and I haven't seen any benchmarks between Canada and the United States—the bee population is quite strong and healthy. You raised some of those indicators in terms of a strong beekeeping population and increase in terms of productivity per pound of honey. Earlier I mentioned overwinter losses. There are very strong indicators in Canada that we're moving forward with stronger bee colonies.

Now, we can't be complacent. We have to continue to monitor and watch these issues. As we indicated earlier, this is why the bee health round table continues to do surveillance and monitoring and the dissemination of best management practices.

[Bev Shipley, Conservative, Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON]

There's something I always ask about. As livestock producers, we sold livestock that could travel great distances. We never shipped them to Australia or New Zealand, but we did get cattle into the United States and Central America. When you ship them, a lot of care and treatment goes into making sure the animal is healthy, and not only before it leaves; they need significant feed, water, and all that stuff as they travel through.

You're moving bees now, and they're coming back in from places like Chile, Australia, and New Zealand. What is required in terms of caring for the bees? I don't know how long the travel time is for the bees, but one of the concerns I've had is that those bees sometimes come in and they're not in great shape in terms of health. How does it work in terms of the feed that is required to give the bees nutrition?

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Mr. Shipley, your time is up. We'll have to move on.

Perhaps that can be addressed later.

Mr. Peschisolido, for six minutes.

[Joe Peschisolido, Liberal, Steveston—Richmond East, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

To the witnesses, thank you very much. Your testimony has been extremely helpful to me in getting an understanding of the issue. In my view, and I would agree with Mr. Kirby, it is a complex issue. There seems to be a variety of variables.

We're here to figure out if there is an issue with bee health, and if there is, the degree of the problem. Is there an issue? For some folks, particularly from industry, there is. Some regions more than others tend to believe that bee health is a concern. From what I've read, from anecdotal conversations, and from folks coming in front of the committee, it seems that folks in Ontario are more concerned about bee health than the folks in Alberta, let's say, or Manitoba and Saskatchewan are.

I'll leave it to anyone to answer generally, and then I'll continue with our conversation.

Perhaps, Mr. Kirby, you'd like to begin.

[Scott Kirby]

Sure. Thank you for the question.

With respect to bee health writ large, I really can't speak to that. I can speak to the issue in Ontario and the link to corn and soy.

Beginning in 2012 we started to receive a large number of incident reports indicating bee mortalities at bee yards. They seemed to be adjacent to corn and soy operations. With respect to Ontario, we've made a link between those operations, neonicotinoid pesticides that are used to treat the seeds, and the emission of dust that appears to be contaminated with those pesticides. We've put in place measures to try to reduce the dust, and we've seen a concurrent decrease in the number of incidents.

There may be a variety of other factors at play as well, but from our perspective, the area of concern with respect to pesticides was southwestern Ontario and Quebec. We've put in place measures, and we're hoping that we'll continue to see improvements in outcomes for bees from that perspective.

[Joe Peschisolido, Liberal, Steveston—Richmond East, BC]

Well, usually when you have factors, you say that one factor is more important than another. You weigh them, and if there is a problem, you create a narrative or a story. You identified a problem with one or two factors. Are there more linkages in these factors? Would pesticides, let's say, be impacting the health of the bees, which will then impact their ability to withstand some disease or other issues?

[Scott Kirby]

That's definitely a possibility. Our work doesn't look specifically at those linkages. We're looking at impacts of pesticides on bees directly. This new framework that was put in place earlier in 2013 to look at the impact of pesticides on bees is helping us do a better job of looking at that aspect.

With respect to the linkages in terms of weakening the immune system of bees and making them more susceptible to impacts from pests and diseases, there's definitely a possibility, but certainly that's not an area that we work in specifically.

[Joe Peschisolido, Liberal, Steveston—Richmond East, BC]

Ms. Johnston or Dr. Komal.

[Andrea Johnston]

I would just add that bee health will always be a top-of-mind consideration for agriculture. They are critically important for many crops, such as orchard fruits, blueberries, and canola and hybrid canola seed. From an agriculture perspective, we need healthy honeybees. I'm not sure if it's a concern, but it always needs to be a top-of-mind issue.

We went through this and worked with the honeybee round table, and there really isn't.... We can't just focus on one issue. We need to focus on the parasites. We need to focus on disease. We need to focus on pesticides. We need to focus on understanding the research and the collaboration we can do within Canada and outside of Canada. It continues to remain a top-of-mind issue because it is critical to the sustainable future of agriculture.

[Joe Peschisolido, Liberal, Steveston—Richmond East, BC]

Ms. Johnston, what's the relationship between honeybees and wild bees? There are a lot of wild bees out there. Do they also serve the purpose of going out and doing what they need to do for crops?

[Andrea Johnston]

Maybe I'll turn that over to Dr. Pernal for his interpretation.